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Eat Your Heart Out Wayne Rooney

I just received this press release and while I usually don’t post these this one was just too good to ignore. I didn’t think Mayweather could top the Cinco De Mayo outfit he wore to the ring before the De La Hoya fight but come Saturday night he most certainly will. Love him or hate him, the man knows how to put on a show (if you consider Wayne Newton carrying a boxing belt to the ring a show. I definitely do). This makes Wayne Rooney coming out with Hatton before the Castillo fight look completely normal.

HELIO, MARK AND WAYNE SET TO CARRY BELTS AND WALK WITH FLOYD FOR WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT
LAS VEGAS (December 6) Dancing With the Stars winner and two-time Indianapolis 500 Champion Helio Castroneves, along with fellow competitors Texas billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and renowned entertainer and “Mr. Las Vegas” himself Wayne Newton, will accompany six-time world champion “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather, also a participant on this year’s show—into the ring Saturday night when he fights undefeated British icon Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton for the WBC and Ring Magazine welterweight championship at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and live on HBO Pay-Per-view. The trio will carry Mayweather’s decorated title belts during the Champion’s celebratory ring walk and join him in the ring for the official announcement moments before the start of the fight.
In addition Castroneves and Newton will join Mayweather Friday for the fight’s official weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. More than 5,000 fans are expected to attend and the event will be distributed live via satellite to national and local television stations across the country.
“Dancing With the Stars was such a great experience for me this year and now to have Helio, Mark and Wayne be a part of my real world makes it that much more meaningful,” said Mayweather.
“We all knew Floyd could dance but now we have a chance to watch him really do his thing in the ring,” said Castroneves, who will be attending his first live boxing match. “I will leave my trophy at home so I can carry Floyd’s belt and show him my support for one of the biggest fights of his career.”
“Floyd is a great guy and a hell of a competitor,” said Cuban. “I can’t wait to watch him fight and I’m honored that he has become a good friend and has asked me to carry his belt for the fight.”
Floyd’s the best in boxing and I am looking forward to see him work his magic this Saturday,” said Newton. “He dazzled them on Dancing With the Stars but this is where he truly shines bright and it will be an honor for me to bring him into the ring, carrying one of his belts. Us Vegas guys have to stick together.”

Posted in Boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Helio Castroneves, Mark Cuban, Wayne Newton | 1 Comment »

Patrycja Mikula Wants Your Undivided Attention

Meet Patrycja Mikula (left). She’s a Playboy Cyber Girl, a one-time IFL ring card girl and an all around great lady. Oh, she’s also Andrei Arlovski‘s girlfriend.

You remember Arlovski, right? The guy who beat Fabricio Werdum at UFC 70 in what was supposed to be a match for the number one heavyweight contender. However, apparently Dana White thought Arlovoski didn’t do enough to earn that status so he went back on his word and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since (unless you count his appearance on The Jerry Springer Show). With the Heavyweight division so wide open since Randy Couture’s departure one would think that the former champ would resurface, but alas, no Pitbull.

On top of trying to find out where Arlovski has been hiding I also spoke to Patrycja about all things MMA. Listen to our interview and you’ll quickly find out that this Polish Princess really knows her stuff. She also firmly addresses Internet speculation that she is to blame for any Arlovksi’s shortcomings in the Octagon.

Enjoy the best-looking guest to come to The Park since…well, since ever.

Patrycja Mikula – 12/06/07

Get used to seeing Patrycja around these parts as she will be our official prognosticator before every big UFC event. She’ll drop her predictions and knowledge on us and then we can all compare and have a good laugh after she continuously picks all the correct winners. Witaj, Patrycja! (I believe that means hello or greetings in Polish but I’m probably wrong.)

Posted in Andrei Arlovski, Interview, MMA, Patrycja Mikula | 9 Comments »

Seriously Now, Does Hatton Have A Shot Against Mayweather?

Yeah, yeah I know what you’re thinking. Ricky Hatton has no chance against Floyd Mayweather this Saturday night. Pretty Boy Floyd is faster, stronger and more experienced than his Mancurian counterpart. But you know what? Who cares.

The build for this fight has been fantastic (thanks in large part to HBO’s 24/7). As I’ve said before, I look at the world through pro wrestling goggles (shhhh) and this feud appears to be straight out of the mind of Vince McMahon. The ultra cocky heel (bad guy) against the pure and charming babyface (good guy). It might as well be Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant in there. Or David and the Goliath.

And, really, David vs. Goliath is the best “fight” to compare this one to. Sure, Hatton is undefeated and popular but he has never faced a fighter quite like Mayweather. As Larz from No Mas Online mentioned in our interview, a simple look at ESPN.com’s Top 5 Hatton fights compared to Floyd’s Top 5 is enough to show how the latter’s 38-0 record is that much more impressive than the former’s 43-0 record.

Nevertheless, I still can’t wait.

Check out my interview below with Larz as he breaks down all things Hatton-Mayweather. We also discuss some other news from around the boxing world (attention Manny Pacquiao lovers) as well as which two fighters he would like to see featured on the next 24/7.

(On a side note, any other combat sports fans out there find it completely idiotic that the UFC scheduled the TUF Finale on the same night as this fight. It’s not like Hatton-Mayweather was announced last week or anything. I know the Finale will probably end at 11 p.m EST and that should be well before the boxing main event starts but, still, chances are if you are buying this PPV or going somewhere to watch it that you will miss the TUF Finale. There are so many free Saturday Nights out there, would it have killed them to schedule their show on a different night than the second most anticipated boxing bout of the year? I guess what I’m trying to say is: Thank the good lord for DVRs.)

Larz – 12/05/07

Posted in Boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Interview, No Mas, Ricky Hatton | 2 Comments »

Discussing The Death Of Sammy Vasquez

It’s been several days since the death of 35-year-old mixed martial artist Samuel Vazquez was first reported and, to be honest, I have had a hard time dealing with how we should cover this tragic news. I wanted to put up some kind of dedication post but I truly felt that it would trivialize the death of a man I didn’t know much about.

You see, since JarryPark.com‘s grand opening several months ago we have always said that we do not consider ourselves a news site. We like to view JP.com as the Outside the Lines to ESPN’s Sportscenter (on a MUCH smaller scale, of course). Our main problem was that there were a lot of question marks surrounding Vasquez and his injury so we really didn’t know what angle to take.

After reading great reaction posts by likes of Zach Arnold at FightOpinion.com and Luke Thomas of Bloodyelbow.com we felt as though there was certainly enough to talk to about at this point in time. Meaning, we were able to present an intelligent discussion on why this happened and how the sport can grow from this horrific news.

Below is our discussion with Thomas about how the media (including the web media) has covered the first official death in regulated MMA history, the fallout from it and what can be done to make sure a tragedy like this one never happens again.

Luke Thomas – 12/05/07

***Update: Please click here to read Sam Caplan’s response to our interview and, more specifically, the quote I attributed to him. He brings up valid points across the board and I sincerely apologize if he felt I misrepresented him. Obviously, that was not my intention.

Posted in Interview, Luke Thomas, MMA, Samuel Vasquez | 6 Comments »

GSP, We Stand On Guard For Thee

I have a confession to make. Growing up in Montreal, I hated anything to do with Canada. I am not sure why, really. I just did. No, I wasn’t a separtist or anything…I just liked to be different, I guess.

Then the time came to move to the United States (for schooling purposes) and, BAM, my love for the city and country grew ten-fold. My apartment walls were covered with Canadian paraphenila, I would constantly listen to Canadian music (more Kardinal Offishall than Celine Dion, though) and I ate a teaspoon of Canadian maple syrup for good luck every morning. Some people would call my behavior “homesick” while I prefer the term nationalisitc.

Sadly, I am still in exile. It’s been almost seven years since I lived in Canada yet my love for all things Canadian is as strong as ever. Atop that list is arguably the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter, Georges St. Pierre. Excluding hockey players, Canadian sports fans (such as myself) don’t have many athletes to root for so you can imagine why we are so passionate about GSP.

In less than four weeks, the pride of Montreal will be put to the ultimate test when he looks to recapture (sort of) his UFC Welterweight title against Matt Hughes at UFC 79. Of course, he will need to get by current champion, the injured Matt Serra, at some point to fully lay claim to that title but we’ll take what we can get.

I spoke(!) to St. Pierre about his career, his upcoming fight against Hughes and about his good friend Joachim Alcine as he prepares to defend his WBA Light Middleweight title this Friday. Take a listen below.

Georges St. Pierre – 12/04/07

(Can’t listen to the interview right now? Download this one and all of our great interviews by clicking on the iTunes or Odeo link at the top right of the page.)

(photo courtesy of UFC) 

Posted in Georges St. Pierre, Interview, MMA, UFC | 7 Comments »

Gabe Ruediger V. 2.0

Love him or hate him, Gabe Ruediger will, without a doubt, go down as one of the most controversial cast members on The Ultimate Fighter reality show.

That’s not really an earth-shattering statement considering the fact that California native seemed to do just about everything to get under the skin of most of his teammates.

So, his experience on the show didn’t go as planned. Live and learn. Ruediger, though, is looking to put it all behind and start the new year fresh.

He claims to be talking to the major North American promotions about fighting for them soon but in the meantime he agreed to do one last interview (for now) on his TUF 5 performance, all the drama that went with it and what to expect from him come 2008.

Gabe Ruediger – 12/4/07

Posted in Gabe Ruediger, Interview, MMA | 5 Comments »

Sam Caplan Responds To FightLinker

Caplan vs. Harkness. 5 oz. of Pain vs. FightLinker. The Battle of the Bloggers is nearing, my friends.

Last week, we invited Ryan to The Park to discuss why he decided to challenge fellow MMA writer Sam Caplan to a sanctioned fight sometime next year.

So, it only made sense to then reach out to Sam for his thoughts on the challenge and to respond to some of Ryan’s comments from our interview.

Without question, Sam is one of the top MMA writers covering the sport. His work on cbssports.com and proelite.com is tremendous and in case anyone was wondering whether or not he is taking Ryan’s challenge seriously our interview (which can be heard below) will put all those doubts to rest.

Sam Caplan – 12/04/07

Posted in Interview, MMA, Ryan Harkness, Sam Caplan | 9 Comments »

Kenny Florian Will Be Finishing Fights In The UFC For A While

I have no problem saying that I absolutely love watching Kenny Florian fight. I think it has something to do with the fact that he doesn’t look like your normal MMA fighter (and that’s a compliment) yet he is so talented. Or maybe its just because he looks like a thinner, more serious version of Ben Stiller.

Whatever it is the man is definitely developing into one of the top stars of the UFC’s Lightweight division. Since losing to Sean Sherk in October 2006, Florian has reeled off three impressive victories in a span of five months. His most recent win came over Din Thomas at Ultimate Fight Night 11 in September.

Following that victory Florian mentioned that he was deservedly packing it in for 2007. However, there’s still still a lot to look forward to for the 31-year-old. As he told us in our interview, he will be making his broadcasting debut for Spike TV at the TUF 6 Finale this Saturday night, he is looking to fight again in February or March (the fact that he will be in the “booth” for the Guida-Huerta fight leads me to believe they will match him up with the winner of that bout) and, the big one, he is about to sign a new six-fight contract with the UFC which will kick in once his current deal runs through (he has two fights left on his old contract).

More great stuff from Florian can be found below as he talks about the Lightweight title situation, his views on steroids in the sport and what it was like to be one of the original members of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV.

Kenny Florian – 12/3/07

Posted in Interview, Kenny Florian, MMA, UFC | 12 Comments »

Brent Albright Is Gunning For Greatness

If you’re a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment chances are you’ve already heard of Brent Albright…sort of.

Remember that young guy who made his debut all the way back in ’06 as Chris Benoit’s protege and defeated Booker T in his first match on WWE television much to the shock of, well, everyone? That was Brent Albright – known then as “Gunner Scott.”

I always like it when WWE debuts guys as huge underdogs and have them shock the world in their first appearance on the big stage (see Cena, John). It sets them up for a nice little run at the beginning of their careers. If done right, of course.

That wasn’t the case with Albright. He lasted only four months in WWE and while he has certain theories as to why his time on the main roster was so short you’ll have to listen to our interview to find them out (how’s that for a tease).

Albright has certainly landed on his feet, though. He has been wrestling for Ring of Honor for over a year and has put on some great matches for them and a bunch of other Indy promotions too.

Take a listen as Albright talks about ROH, his time with WWE and his thoughts on the tragedy involving Chris Benoit.

Brent Albright – 12/3/07

Posted in Brent Albright, Interview, Ring of Honor, Wrestling | No Comments »

Diamond Dallas Page Is Loving Life

The last time pro wrestling fans saw Diamond Dallas Page working on the national scene was in May 2005. At that point in his career, Page was wrestling for TNA but hardly anyone was watching TNA in those days (this was before the promotion began on Spike in October of that year).

So what has the “King of Bada Bing” been up to since then? Uh, teaching yoga…of course.

DDP is the brains behind the Yoga For Regular Guys Workout also known as YRG. One can buy DVDs to learn about his workout by going to the YRG Workout website or if you live in LA you can even workout WITH him. More info on that here.

But the former WCW champion is not just teaching Yoga these days. He is also a motivational speaker and a budding movie star. He even wrestles on the Indies from time-to-time. To steal a line of his from our interview (found below) “DDP is a renaissance man.”

Amen, champ. Amen.

Wanna feel good about yourself or your future? Take a listen to my interview with Page. DDP made me want to jump out of my apartment and run eight marathons after talking to him. The man certainly knows how to motivate and appears to be loving his life after wrestling. Shocking, right?

Oh, don’t worry, we also talk about his illustrious in-ring career too.

Diamond Dallas Page – 12/3/07

(Can’t listen to the interview right now? Download this one and all of our great interviews by clicking on the iTunes or Odeo link at the top right of the page.)

Posted in Diamond Dallas Page, Interview, Wrestling | 2 Comments »